competent straddling

[pars]

Hello!
Help me, please, about the exact meaning of the following passage. The words in bold are specially problematic. It is from the book The Parsi Community of India and the Making of Modern Iran, p. 169, by Afshin Marashi. I think "straddle" means "encompass" but I am not sure.

Purdavud’s radical assessment of the fall of the Sassanian Empire, like his comments on the Mongol conquest, was novel in its competent straddling of the hermeneutical divide between the “science” of orientalism and the ideology of nationalism.

Purdavud was an Iranian scholar of pre-Islamic Iran and a strong nationalist. Sassanian Empire was the national Empire of Iran destroyed by Mosleb-Arabs in 651 AC.

 

[emsr2d2]

Imagine "straddle" as meaning having one leg on each side of a line (a divide - in this case the "hermeneutical divide", whatever that is!) His assessment managed to incorporate/include/cover both the "science of orientalism" and the "ideology of nationalism".

 

[pars]

Imagine "straddle" as meaning having one leg on each side of a line (a divide - in this case the "hermeneutical divide", whatever that is!) His assessment managed to incorporate/include/cover both the "science of orientalism" and the "ideology of nationalism".

Thanks very much. Your Answer was a great help.

 

[emsr2d2]

Thanks very much. Your answer was a great help.

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